Chinese police rebadge Mercedes-Benz ML 350 as a Honda CR-V

Police in China have unsuccessfully tried to fool taxpayers by rebadging their Mercedes-Benz ML 350 as a Honda CR-V.

Police from Fengchanggang in Guangxi Province took their 900,000 yuan ($130,000) Mercedes-Benz ML 350 and attempted to turn it into a 200,000 yuan ($30,000) Honda CR-V using little more than a knife, some recycled badges and a bit of super glue.

According to Car News China, there has been plenty of recent criticism over governments’ wasteful use of public funds, so the police aimed to cover up their luxury splurge.

Unfortunately for them, with China now being the world’s largest automotive market, there are a few people who can actually pick the subtle differences between a Merc and a Honda and they have since been publically disgraced.

The story is similar to one we ran late last month, where three Chinese council officials appeared ‘inspecting a road’ in a blatantly doctored image.

In that story, the council apologised for the image and gave an explanation for it.

In this story however, police have continued to deny that they made any changes to the vehicle.

What do you think of Honda’s new ML 350? And more importantly, what is your opinion of the sneaky tactics used by the Fengchanggang police?